Future Fund: Breakthrough opens for funding applications from innovative R&D intensive companies

Future Fund: Breakthrough, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at Budget 2021, has opened for applications. The UK-wide programme will deliver £375m of government funding via British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank.

The scheme is separate and different to the now closed Future Fund that provided convertible loans of up to £5m to a wide variety of innovative UK companies, to address the funding challenges caused by Covid-19.

Through the Future Fund: Breakthrough programme, British Patient Capital will make equity co-investments with private sector investors in later stage R&D-intensive UK companies operating in breakthrough technology sectors, such as quantum computing, cleantech, and life sciences.

Key Programme Features:

• Focused on R&D intensive companies
• Minimum total investment round size of £30m
• Potential investee companies must have raised at least £5m in previous funding rounds
• Potential investee companies must be UK based, with significant UK operations
• The application must be made by a lead investor

Future Fund: Breakthrough is focused on an area of the market with a high need for additional patient capital.

In order to be eligible for the scheme, companies must, inter alia, be raising a minimum total investment round size of £30m, and the maximum Future Fund: Breakthrough will contribute to an investment round is 30%. (The minimum amount of private sector funding is £21m).

The company must also have raised at least £5m of equity investment from third-party investors in previous funding rounds. As a fully commercial scheme, Future Fund: Breakthrough will invest on the same terms as private sector investors.

Judith Hartley, CEO, British Patient Capital said:

“With many world-class universities and a strong track record in science and research, the UK is fertile ground for creating high-growth companies based on cutting edge technologies. Through the commercialisation of R&D, these transformative companies will help accelerate the deployment of innovative breakthrough technologies that can transform major industries; develop new medicines; support the transition to a net zero economy and strengthen the UK’s position as a science superpower.

“Future Fund: Breakthrough will enable these R&D intensive companies to raise the patient capital they need to fuel the later stages of their growth, and in doing so, help ensure the UK is a world leader in the industries of the future.”

British Patient Capital is the trading name of British Patient Capital Limited, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. It forms part of the British Business Bank’s commercial arm.

Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large scale businesses. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has £2.5bn to invest over 10 years in venture and venture growth capital to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more at britishpatientcapital.co.uk.